Hi All
This seems the best forum for this thread. The issue of whether to have a second child is, for me, a financial one. Emotionally, my wife and I would like to have a second and our relationship is very solid and generally excellent. If we had a lot of money, we would easily have four or five children, but as things stand, the most we would ever have is two. Here are the details:
So now, to have a second child or not? Our original plan was to have one child; after two years my wife would get a CMA and return to work.
Now we're considering a second and a whole host of issues come up:
1. When to have? If we have a second child within the next two years, my wife can basically forget about getting a CMA and she'll be out of the labor market for the next 5 years. Will she be able to get back into it?
2. If we stay in the middle east, we can afford it due to my highish salary and the excellent insurance provided by my employer. But we will be isolated from extended family and we would be depriving our kids of getting to really know their grandparents (i.e. my parents), who are lovely and would be very loving (the grandparents on my wife's side are deceased).
3. If we leave the UAE after, say, 5 years and move to Ireland, I predict we will have a net worth of around 650k EUR - enough to buy a house for cash, have 100k as walking around money, and 200k for a pension, and of course I would have to continue to work. But:
- due to taxes etc my take-home income would be slashed to around 55k per annum
- a household needs two incomes to live comfortably in Ireland I would say
- childcare is exorbitant and my wife might struggle to find work
So...that's my dilemma. This is really only an issue if we have a second child. We can afford the first one without issues. I'm agonizing over this as I basically want to be able to give a good life to my children and at the same time I don't want to be financially stressed or under pressure. I don't really know what to do.
This seems the best forum for this thread. The issue of whether to have a second child is, for me, a financial one. Emotionally, my wife and I would like to have a second and our relationship is very solid and generally excellent. If we had a lot of money, we would easily have four or five children, but as things stand, the most we would ever have is two. Here are the details:
- I'm 33; wifey is 34.
- We both live in the UAE, but I am from Ireland and my wife is from SE Asia.
- I work for a large multi-national that is considered a great place to work (and it is)
- My wife is an accountant but quit her job when she had our baby to be a full-time mother (we preferred this option to daycare or getting a nanny).
- Our combined income was reduced by 25% when my wife quit her job, but we still take in 120k EUR per year tax free.
- We have excellent health cover provided by my employer
- When our child reaches 3 years of age my employer covers around 80% of all educational costs from ages 3-18 up to a maximum of three children (education here is private)
- We had our first baby 10 weeks ago.
- My job seems secure. We could probably stay in the UAE for another 5-10 years if we wanted to.
- Even with my wife unemployed, we still save 65% of our annual income and invest in diversified Vanguard ETFs (my employer does not provide a pension and there is no social insurance here)
So now, to have a second child or not? Our original plan was to have one child; after two years my wife would get a CMA and return to work.
Now we're considering a second and a whole host of issues come up:
1. When to have? If we have a second child within the next two years, my wife can basically forget about getting a CMA and she'll be out of the labor market for the next 5 years. Will she be able to get back into it?
2. If we stay in the middle east, we can afford it due to my highish salary and the excellent insurance provided by my employer. But we will be isolated from extended family and we would be depriving our kids of getting to really know their grandparents (i.e. my parents), who are lovely and would be very loving (the grandparents on my wife's side are deceased).
3. If we leave the UAE after, say, 5 years and move to Ireland, I predict we will have a net worth of around 650k EUR - enough to buy a house for cash, have 100k as walking around money, and 200k for a pension, and of course I would have to continue to work. But:
- due to taxes etc my take-home income would be slashed to around 55k per annum
- a household needs two incomes to live comfortably in Ireland I would say
- childcare is exorbitant and my wife might struggle to find work
So...that's my dilemma. This is really only an issue if we have a second child. We can afford the first one without issues. I'm agonizing over this as I basically want to be able to give a good life to my children and at the same time I don't want to be financially stressed or under pressure. I don't really know what to do.